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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29633379">Episode 4: Unarmed</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/CreativeSkull/pseuds/CreativeSkull'>CreativeSkull</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Happy Times at Handeemen HQ [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Hello Puppets (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Amputation, Fear of doctors, Gen, Swan Lake - Freeform, Truama, kids being kids</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-02-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 19:22:34</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,713</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29633379</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/CreativeSkull/pseuds/CreativeSkull</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Nick's distraction had some unintended consequences, leading Stacy and Danny to spending a Saturday at the HQ. Luckily, Stacy remembered to bring movies. Unluckily, the Hand Puppets discover a secret of hers she really wanted to keep hidden. Now she has to deal with Riley alone...</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Happy Times at Handeemen HQ [4]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1686223</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"I don't see why we have to come here today. Can't you just do this at home?" Stacy complained as Mary led them into the Studio. It was a dark, stormy Saturday, perfect for staying inside. Instead, her and Danny had to go to "work" with Mary.</p><p>"Stacy, honey, I would love to just stay home but Nick's stupid edits to my script mean I have to come in. All of us writers have to." She sighed irritably. </p><p>"Yeah, but why can't Danny and I just stay home? I can watch him." She tried desperately.</p><p>"Because... it's illegal." Mary swept her unbrushed hair back. "Besides, I thought you liked Scout. You told me you wanted to spend the weekend with her."</p><p>"Yeah. At home. Not here." The thirteen year old deadpanned as Mary moved towards the offices. The woman sighed in response, reaching the end of her patience.</p><p>"Look, why don't you take your brother and go find her? It'll be a lot more interesting than what I'm doing."</p><p>"You mean tearing Nick a new one?" She asked, sounding interested. "Cause I want to watch that."</p><p>"You don't get to watch that. Go find Scout." Were the last words Mary said before towards the offices. </p><p>"Fine." Stacy groaned as her stepmother went into her office. She grabbed Danny's arm with her left and led him in the direction of the Sound Stage. He followed her eagerly, just excited to be there at a time he normally wasn't.</p><p>Her intent was to find Daisy and have her let them into the elevator to go upstairs. If they couldn't find her, she was planning on using the vents to get into the playroom instead. She remembered the way, mostly, and it'd be easier than trying to work up the courage to ask someone else.</p><p>Unfortunately, Daisy was nowhere to be found. They looked all over the Sound Stage, checked her House Set, and then looked in the cafeteria. But, sadly, no Daisy. Which meant Stacy had to pick the lock on one of the prop closets to reach the vents.</p><p>"Hmm, two children where they're not supposed to be." Stacy froze mid break in as Danny ran over to the Puppet, who sighed and leaned down to ruffle his hair. "Yes yes, it's nice to see you too, Danny."</p><p>Stacy struggled to keep her voice even. "Uh, w-where's Daisy?" She stowed the picks back under her glove as she stood up and turned to face the scientist. </p><p>She wasn't the scariest looking Puppet(poor Nick held that title, even among the other staff). But, Stacy had always held a fear of doctors, dentists, anyone who wore scrubs and a lab coat basically. Which Riley did, unfortunately, and it made the girl more nervous than the others did. </p><p>Well, that, and the forums talking about how she must be doing unethical experiments to get a dog as big as the Rosco puppet. But Stacy was pretty sure that was for in the show, not real life. Probably.</p><p>Riley let out a huff of annoyance. "In the writer's room with our annoying brat of a brother. His edits to the script have caused her scenes to be quite a bother." She sighed. "What do you need her for, anyway? And why are you two here on this day?"</p><p>"... Mary's the head writer." Stacy told her, clenching her sleeves in her fists. "And it's, like, illegal to leave us home alone or something. I don't know." </p><p>"Ah, I see, but you only answered question number two." She pointed out in a matter-of-fact sort of way. "What for you, could Daisy do?"</p><p>Stacy thought that rhyme was a little bit of a stretch, with the wording and all. But, before she could respond Danny clapped his hands, and pointed towards the ceiling. "Scout!" He told her excitedly. "We're here to see Scout!"</p><p>"Ah, I understand now." She did not look happy about it either. Stacy wondered why. "Fine then, I'll call the elevator down."</p><p>She led the two kids to the elevator doors and inserted her own key-card, unlocking them. Stacy waited uncomfortably as it slowly descended, trying to keep between her brother and Riley. It was difficult, as he kept leaning around her to talk at the Puppet, who listened politely. </p><p>When the elevator arrived, Stacy pulled Danny into it with a quickly muttered "Thanks". It took everything in her to not button mash the floor number she wanted. She did her best not to stare at the Puppet as the doors closed, but it was difficult when she could feel her weird wooden eyes piercing into her soul.</p><p>When they reached the upper floor, Stacy practically dragged her brother out of the elevator. It started to go back down almost immediately, so she hurried to the playroom, rushing through Daisy's sewing room to get to it. She didn't knock, but did ease the door open slowly so as not to startle them. When she got it fully opened, Scout flung herself and landed on her face.</p><p>"Stacy!" She screamed, and the girl almost had to peel her off her face. She lifted the small Puppet up to let her rest on top of her head.</p><p>"Hi, Scout. Mom's here to deal with some... script issues, I guess, and she brought me and Danny." Danny waved, and Scout waved back. "So I brought some movies for us all to watch."</p><p>"Yay, movies!" Bonzai latched onto her backpack, working the zipper open so he could climb inside. Stacy put the bag on the floor and he burst out a second later, with a video in his hands. "Terminatooooor!" He yelled, and Canon facepalmed.</p><p>"Yeah, we can watch that one first." Stacy told them and grabbed the tape, going over to put it in the player. She put it in and turned on the TV, hitting play once it had booted up. They sat back to watch, most of the Puppets migrating to sit on the human children.</p><p>Surprisingly, they managed to watch in silence, though Stacy and Danny did have their own commentary in sign language. Only Scout really understood it, but she didn't understand much. She had only just started to learn, after all, and was looking at the signs backwards.</p><p>The movie ended, and Bonzai immediately dove back into the backpack with Bit. Together they searched for another action movie while Stacy rewound the Terminator. </p><p>"Hey, how come there are only baby movies in here?" Bit asked angrily, popping out of the bag with a tape in her arms.</p><p>"I'd hardly call Shrek or Spirited Away 'baby' movies." Stacy frowned, picking up the anime movie. "Mom wouldn't even let me watch this one until just last year."</p><p>"But they're cartoons, and cartoons are so boring!" Bonzai complained.</p><p>"What kind of cartoons are you watching?" She muttered as she took the film out of it's box and crouched by the player. Louder, she said "I promise, Spirited Away isn't boring. Anime is awesome."</p><p>"Mom never lets us watch anime. She says it's inappropriate for kids." Canon told her, and Stacy sighed. </p><p>"Well, she's wrong. Sailor Moon and Digimon and Pokemon are all for kids." She told the Puppets, with Danny nodding along beside her. "And there's a lot more than just that. I'll record some episodes to bring next time."</p><p>"Okay but we can't tell Mom." A pause as Canon raised her voice so her siblings could hear. "Nobody tell Mom Stacy's showing us anime."</p><p>"Okay!"</p><p>"Sure!"</p><p>"Whatever."</p><p>Were the three answers she got, which she called good enough for now. At least she knew nobody would tell Mom, if only for the promise of Forbidden Goods.</p><p>While they watched the movie, Stacy sat with her arms full of Handpuppets. It was like holding a litter of puppies, as they never stopped moving and sometimes crawled away to do other stuff. At one point, Bonzai pulled out a couple of magnets to play with. As he pulled them apart to let them fly back together, he was startled when they instead attached themselves to Stacy's right arm.</p><p>"Stacy's a terminator!" He shrieked, and immediately teleported away.</p><p>"What?! No I-!" She jolted when a small, stuffed bear hit her on the head. "Dude!"</p><p>"Bonzai, what the heck?!" Canon followed him onto the bookcase he'd hidden on top of.</p><p>"She's an evil robot! The magnets are sticking to her arm!" He cried, and when Stacy looked there were two small magnets caught on her. She pulled them off and tossed them aside while Canon tried to calm her brother down.</p><p>"Hey! Stacy's not a robot!" Scout angrily shouted up at her siblings.</p><p>"Then what is she?" Bit asked, having picked up a small stick. Scout opened her mouth, then snapped it shut.</p><p>"I... can't tell you that." She finally said. "But I swear she's not a robot."</p><p>A long pause of silence, and then Canon figured it out and smacked Bonzai off the bookshelf. "It's a prosthetic, you idiot!"</p><p>"Oh." Was all the fallen Puppet said as he laid limply where he'd landed. Canon face-palmed, followed by Bit, while Stitch went to check on their brother. </p><p>"Can we see it?" Bit asked excitedly, already trying to pull back her sleeve. Stacy yanked her arm up and away from the Puppet.</p><p>"No! You can't see it!" She snapped.</p><p>"Yeah, it's not that interesting anyways." Scout tried to help, very unhelpfully.</p><p>"You've seen it?! That's not fair!" Bit complained, and Bonzai Jumped over too.</p><p>"Yeah! You can't just show Scout! She's lame!" He insisted, to the human teen's unamused look.</p><p>"Scout's my favorite." Stacy told them bluntly, to two offended gasps while Scout cheered and then mocked them.</p><p>"Yeah, I'm her favorite! Who's lame now? Losers. Ow!" Canon smacked her head, turning on her eye lights. </p><p>"Don't be smug about it!" She scolded her younger sister, who grumbled and retreated to the top of Stacy's head. </p><p>"Hey, no hitting." Stacy tried to scold, then just gave a tired sigh. "Look. let's just go back to the movie, it's fine."</p><p>"No! I wanna see the robot arm!" Bonzai lunged for her, but Stacy yanked her arm away again and he landed on the carpet instead. "Come on! You showed it to Scout!"</p><p>"Yeah, and I'm not showing it to anybody else!" She retorted, while Danny picked up Bonzai. The puppet struggled against the five year old's hold, but ultimately failed to escape.</p><p>"I'm helping!" Danny pipped up happily as he sat back down to finish the movie.</p><p>"Yep. You are." His sister muttered. They managed about five more minutes of movie before Bonzai managed to escape Danny's grasp. He instantly went back over to her, draping himself over her arm.</p><p>"I still wanna see the arm." He said, and Stacy groaned as she fell back against the carpet, hands pressed against her face.</p><p>"Noooooo." She moaned out. "I. Don't. Wanna. Show you."</p><p>"Please! We all wanna see!" Bit piped up. Stacy uncovered her face and looked over at Stitch, who nodded. Her gaze turned to Canon, who looked away sheepishly.</p><p>"I mean, it's not like I don't want to see it..." She admitted quietly, and Stacy gave an irritated sigh.</p><p>"Fine! Fine. But you only get one look! And none of you get to ask me again!" She waited until they all nodded, before starting to roll up her sleeve, revealing just how long her glove really was. Carefully, she pulled it off, revealing gleaming silver metal that ended just above her elbow. The flesh that met the metal was scarred, rough and pale against the smooth brown that was the rest of her skin.</p><p>"Oooooh, so shiny..." Bonzai muttered. The four Puppets that hadn't seen it yet stared, transfixed, at the limb. Scout, who had also reacted that same way, just rolled her eyes.</p><p>"Weirdos." She muttered, though she also couldn't help but watch as Stacy flexed her hand and showed off the arm.</p><p>"It's really advanced, and really expensive." She told them. "And I'm supposed to go in for upgrades in a few months due to growth spurts."</p><p>"Why are you even hiding this? It makes you so much cooler than anyone else." Bit told her, and she shrugged, pulling the glove back on.</p><p>"Because I don't want them to know about it." Stacy said bluntly, letting her sleeve drop back down. "Now can we please go back to the movie? It's one of my favorites."</p><p>"Yeah, we can do that." Canon said, and then forced her siblings to turn back to the screen, which had been playing the movie the whole time. Giving a relieved sigh, Stacy did the same, settling in as she made sure her glove was on straight.</p><p>They watched the movie silently, the small Puppets getting way too into it in Stacy's opinion. But, at least they liked it, and that was all she really cared about. By the end of it, however, most of them were still riled up, including Danny, so Stacy put in Barbie Swan Lake instead.</p><p>"But that's a girls movie!" Bonzai complained, to which Stitch shushed him. </p><p>"You should give the movie a chance. The story is about a rather interesting dance." She told him, to which he groaned louder.</p><p>"Stacy can dance!" Danny piped up, to which Stacy internally sighed.</p><p>'<i>Great word association there. Does everything have to come back to me?</i>' She shook her head slightly, trying to keep from sounding resentful. </p><p>"You can?!" That was Scout, now staring up at her with wide eyes. "You never told me that!"</p><p>"That's because I can't do it anymore. The weight distribution is off with my arm." She told her.</p><p>"Can you still show us some moves? Please?" Five Puppets, and one younger brother, stared up at her, begging with surprisingly good puppy-dog-eyes. She could feel her resolve wavering,even as she focused on the TV.</p><p>"Ugh..." She hated being the oldest. Why did all the younger kids think she was cool? "Fine. I'll do a dance. But don't ask me for anything else today."</p><p>"Yay!" Everyone, including Danny, cheered, as Stacy moved to get ready. Lucky her, they were dancing on the movie, so she could just do what they were doing. It wasn't terribly complicated, as she'd been in a production of Swan Lake before, though not as Odette. The moves that were a little too complex, were easy to fake with a bit of effort.</p><p>It was easy to lose herself in it, just like she used to. Easy enough that she stopped looking at the screen, and simply did the dance from memory.</p><p>And thus, it was easy enough to misstep and slide on a piece of paper during a spin. A yell, and a loud, sharp thud as she landed, and things went black.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Luckily, Stacy only blacked out for a few seconds before her senses returned. There was a lot of yelling involved, which was torture on her pounding head, but, luckily, she didn't seem to have landed on anyone. She sat up with a groan, and everyone was instantly on her. Danny buried his face in her shirt with a loud sob(gross), and the Puppets clung to them both while yelling questions.</p><p>"Are you okay?!" Canon clung to her hair, swinging in front of her face. Stacy carefully grabbed the Puppet and set her down, then patted Danny's head.</p><p>"I'm fine." She assured them quietly. "Just slipped, no big deal." She cleared her throat. "Did that loads of time at the ballet studio. Me, and several others." That was a lie, she'd never fallen that hard before. "Let's just go back to the movie..."</p><p>Danny nodded and finally stopped clinging to his sister. She went to stand up, but almost fell again when her right arm didn't move to support her weight. "Oh, I don't think arms are supposed to bend like that..." Bonzai muttered, and Stacy felt her heart stop when she looked to see what he meant.</p><p>The arm was twisted at the elbow, and when Stacy tried to move it there was instead a sickeningly grinding sound as it stayed still. She could still move the hand, however, but that was useless with the rest of her arm unusable.</p><p>"... Mary's going to <i>kill</i> me." She whispered. panic rising. They did not have the money for this. At all. She tried again to move the joint, but found it just as stuck as it was a few seconds ago.</p><p>She had no idea what to do. Should she try and wench it back into place? Leave it and hope Mary didn't notice? No that was insane, she couldn't go without the use of one arm for the next three months. Taking a deep breath, she grabbed the wrist and prepared to pull.</p><p>"Wait!" Canon grabbed her hand. "You shouldn't do that! You could break it more."</p><p>"Well what's your suggestion, then? Because if Mary or Dad find out about this, I am so dead!" She hissed out, casting a glance at Danny. Luckily, he didn't seem to grasp the gravity of the situation.</p><p>"Well... " She hesitated briefly, swallowing down the apprehension of the suggestion. "Riley's good at this sort of thing-"</p><p>"No." The reply was harsh and quick. </p><p>"Stacy, you have to." The blue haired Puppet pointed at her mangled elbow. "You can't fix that by yourself."</p><p>"Watch me." She attempted to tug, and was rewarded with nothing. The next few pulls were met with the same, and she realized with dawning horror that she had to tell someone. Canon sighed again as she realized what was happening.</p><p>"Stacy, we are going to Riley. Right now."</p><p>"No, I can fi-OWOWOW<i>OW! Stop that!</i>" She grabbed at the Puppet now on her head, pulling her hair. Canon dodged her weak attempts, leaning down into her view.</p><p>"You <i>will</i> go to Riley or I will <i>go get</i> Riley." She told the girl, who glared back, but even she knew she was defeated.</p><p>"Fine." She ground out, standing up. Danny stood with her, the other Puppets gathered in his arms. Except for Scout, who Jumped onto Stacy's shoulder with Canon.</p><p>"It's okay." The younger Puppet tried to quietly assure her as the group made the trip to Riley's room. "Riley's really nice, I promise."</p><p>Stacy ignored her, left hand digging into her sleeve as she approached the door to her possible doom. She stopped just before the door, in a moment that went on forever as she stared, unblinking, into space. </p><p>"Nope." She turned on her heel, fully intending on heading back to the playroom, but a loud thunk behind her made her stop. She turned just in time to see Scout sliding down the door, having launched herself at it. Stacy didn't even have time to murderously glare at the Puppet before it opened to reveal Riley in full lab gear, goggles down and mask up.</p><p>She pushed the goggles up, spotting Scout almost immediately. "I don't have the time to babysit. Tell me now, what is it?"</p><p>Scout didn't even hesitate before she pointed to Stacy. "Stacy broke her robot arm and needs help fixing it!" She informed the scientist. Riley looked up at the girl, who had angled away to try and hide her arm. It failed, though, as the Puppet could still see how obviously twisted it was.</p><p>"Hmm, I see." She turned and gestured. "Follow me." It took Stacy a second, but, reluctantly, she did as she was told. Only for Riley to suddenly pluck Canon from her head and hand her to Danny before shooing him and the Hand Puppets away. "Not you, I'm afraid. Why don't you go back and play. This is something we need to do alone, and we'll come get you when we're done." And then she closed the door, shutting them out.</p><p>Stacy watched this with no small amount of fear, wishing she could speak up to say <i>"No, stop, I want them in here."</i> She didn't, though, and instead stood silently as she'd always done. She jumped slightly when Riley cleared her throat, startled out of her thoughts.</p><p>"Off with the shirt so that I can take a look." The rhymes were getting looser, but Stacy wisely didn't point that out and instead took off her shirt, leaving her with just a plain pink tank top instead. She set it aside on the table and offered up her arm, which Riley grabbed to look at.</p><p>"Hmm, I see what happened, and it's an easy fix. Just come with and I'll, uh-" She had tried to lead Stacy to a work table, only for the arm to fall limply in her hands. Looking back, she saw the girl standing there almost too innocently, right arm now just a stump with a metal cap on it. "Clever." Was all Riley said about it, before heading to the work table. </p><p>Stacy followed, curious to how the Puppet would fix the arm. She kept her distance, but inched closer when she realized Riley wasn't paying attention to her. She may not like the Puppet, but she did want to see her fix the arm. </p><p>It was delicate work, however, as she'd twisted the elbow joint quite badly when she'd fell. It involved taking the arm apart at the elbow, so Riley could untwist everything. Gently, she pushed wires back where they belonged, making sure the joint itself wasn't cracked or shattered. </p><p>"Luckily, the damage isn't so great that I'm unable to repair." She told the girl. "But how this happened, you need to share."</p><p>"Hmm." A pause, because honestly it was kinda embarrassing. "... I was showing the others a dance and slipped..." She finally mumbled, twisting the hem of her tank top in her hand. "... Landed on the robot arm..." She was startled when Riley suddenly grabbed her stump, inspecting the area around the connector. </p><p>"Any damage to the flesh of your arm would be alarming." She told Stacy seriously as she examined it. "Lucky for you, there's no evidence of even a bruise forming."</p><p>"Okay..." She yanked her stump out of the Puppet's hands and rubbed at it to try and scrub the feeling of her rubbery gloves away. She wanted to scratch, but knew by now that would just cause her to bleed.</p><p>If Riley thought that was an odd reaction, she didn't give any indication of it and instead turned back to fixing up the prosthetic. This time, however, she talked as she worked, telling Stacy about the different parts she was working on and how they fit together. And she did it all in rhyme, which even Stacy had to admit was impressive, since she was coming up with all of it on the fly.</p><p>After some time, though, she finally finished and had put everything back together. She bent and unbent the elbow a few times to make sure things were working as intended, then presented it to Stacy. The girl grabbed it and, though she didn't explain it verbally, she did make sure Riley could see how she hooked it into the connector. It was fairly simple, but the Puppet still watched her do it with intense interest.</p><p>Pulling her long sleeved shirt back on, Stacy wondered how she could make it up to the scientist. Her eye caught the box of beakers, seemingly untouched since yesterday. She stared at it, mind turning over the consequences of each option before her. Taking a deep breath and willing her voice to be steady, she spoke up.</p><p>"I heard Nick talking about something yesterday." She was pleased with how casual she managed to sound, even as her heartbeat picked up.</p><p>"Oh?" Riley turned around, giving the girl her full attention and making her even more nervous. "What did he say?"</p><p>"He was talking about how he replaced the beakers you used on the show with ones made of sugar glass. As payback because you took his paint." She tried to keep from rambling. </p><p>Casting a suspicious look, Riley wheeled over and grabbed the box, taking out one of the beakers to inspect it against the light. Stacy could see it in her eyes when she realized she was telling the truth. </p><p>Expression turning briefly murderous before going blank, the Handeeman put the beaker back into the box and wheeled out of the room. Stacy following close behind, curious as to what she would do. Right outside, she found the others, and quickly indicated that they should all follow Riley, who was waiting for them in the elevator.</p><p>The ride down was tense and silent, everyone able to feel the anger radiating off of the scientist. Not even Bonzai tried to lighten the mood with a quick quip, too frightened of Riley's dark demeanor to even make the attempt.</p><p>Daniel suppressed a yawn as his pen lightly tapped against his notebook. Nick stood at the head of the table, trying to explain his changes to the script. Daniel was pretty sure he hadn't been thinking with those changes, considering he didn't seem to have an explanation for half of them.</p><p>He was pretty sure this meeting would end with all changes reverted. Just like every other time this had happened. Daniel was pretty sure Nick only made changes to be a nuisance and ruin everybody else's weekend. Still, he diligently took notes on the answers Nick <i>did</i> give, and hoped Mortimer would call the meeting done soon.</p><p>What neither he or anyone else knew, was that soon the meeting would be about something else entirely. Quietly, without anyone taking notice, the doorknob turned and the door was pushed open ever so slightly. A moment later, the door was slammed open, hitting against the wall hard enough to leave a dent.</p><p>"Nicholas Nack!" Riley shrieked as she burst into the room. "How dare you!" And then she threw one of the beakers at the artist, making everyone scream and yell.  Beyond her, in the doorway, Stacy, Danny, and the Handpuppets could be seen, watching the whole thing go down. </p><p>"Riley!" Mortimer yelled as the humans dove beneath the table. That didn't stop her, as she began to chase Nick around the room, throwing the beakers at him.</p><p>"I'll show you to steal my stuff!" She shrieked as sugar glass broke against the walls. Daisy pulled one of the writers away as they barreled past, and she wondered just what was happening this time.</p><p>"How did you find out?!" He dodged another attempt, and the kids ducked back from the doorway as the beaker flew past and shattered against the wall. Danny was laughing, and the Hand Puppets were cheering Riley on, though they were all drowned out by the yelling inside the room. Stacy just watched, recalling a similar scene from her childhood.</p><p>When she was young, her mother liked to put on old tapes of Mortimer's Handeemen, and there was skit just like this, also featuring Riley and Nick. Back then the skit had really upset her, even with her mom assuring her it wasn't real and was just pretend. It hadn't helped and all subsequent viewings of the tape had them fast forwarding through the skit.</p><p>Watching Riley now, in the present, launch herself off of her stand and across the room at Nick, Stacy was pretty sure they weren't pretending now. Luckily, she was saved from trying to figure out what to do when Daisy finally spotted them and rushed out of the room, closing the door behind her.</p><p>"I'll bet you kids are hungry!" She said with fake cheer. "Why don't we go on down to the cafeteria, and I'll get you kids something to eat."</p><p>"But I wanna watch Riley kill Nick!" Bit protested, even as Daisy and Stacy worked to herd them away.</p><p>"Nope! Y'all don't get to see that today!" She hurried them along. "But don't worry, they'll be fine. This just... it happens sometimes. Don't worry." She gave a soft sigh, and Stacy felt the guilt of what she started build in her stomach.</p><p>'<i>Better now than later I guess.</i>' She tried to reassure herself. '<i>At least nobody knows that I helped with the prank. Except for Nick and Danny. I hope they don't tell anyone.</i>'</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>And thus Stacy is now a little bit more used to all the Puppets, though she's not terribly happy at Scout right now. Hopefully they can work through it, but we'll have to see.</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Whoops, sorry, no new Outside chapter this week, or the next. Wanted to get this posted too so I could start getting more episodes written. Don't worry though, it will return next month! :D</p></blockquote></div></div>
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